OT how much did your wedding cost?

[Jame0223]

So I am now going to be officially engaged! I have started looking into certain things having to do with a wedding and have realized...but pretty much already knew, its expensive! I am just asking for a ballpark of how much your wedding costed you/the host! My mom told me that hers only costed about $2000 and thats because she and her mom did pretty much everything themselves. They did the bouquets, the maid of honors dress, the food, the decorations, the gifts. Everything except for her dress, the place rental, the dj, and the cake! And it was also 21 years ago! so I imagine prices have gone up since then...and I don't want to put that much of my own elbow grease into it unless I have to...I googled the average price of a wedding in my area and it came back with 20-35 grand! Thats helpful...

So if you don't mind, just some hints about how much everything costs would be wonderful! Or if you have any suggestions on how to cut back on cost..or recommend any services ...you would be awesome! Thanks ladies!

[Grandmatobe]

My daughter just got married last month and although we tried to keep expenses tight, it still cost between $20-$25k.  Fortunately, the mother of the groom split the cost with me.  Everything is sooo expensive.  $1500 here, $1700 there and don't get me started on the cost of food per person.  We went cheap with $43 per person, but with 140 people and the cost of the venue, etc, it added up to over $12k just for that portion.

I'm not trying to scare you away, but if you want to feel better about the money you spend, watch those bride shows on TV (platinum weddings, where they spend $100k+ or Rich Bride, Poor Bride).  They are fun to watch and they can give you ideas on how to limit expenses for certain things (well, not on the Platinum show)....

Back when I got married 25 years ago, my wedding was around $4,000-$5,000.  Congrats to you!!

[Jame0223]

Thanks! I really don't want to spend that much because I don't know if our parents are going to help us pay for everything! It might be just us and we really cant afford much so...I have never heard of those shows...I will have to look them up. Its such an exciting time and I want things to be perfect...not cheap but unfortunately, looks like were heading that direction lol!

[GRose]

This is the reason DB hasn't made me and honest women yet LOL. But seriously, my Dad is not going to cover all of the expenses and Joe has no family. It ***** that weddings are so expensive now, my mom just told me that her flowers from her wedding with my dad only cost her $150.

[Michele, Katy, TX]

My husband and I just went to a wedding this past weekend.  It was my husband's cousin.  I have no idea how much everything cost, but you may want to look into places where you do everything in the same place.  Everything was done there.  The ceremony, the meal, dancing, cake, etc.  You can buy different packages.  There are all sorts of places like that.  If you do it at a church and do everything separately, I would imagine it would cost more than getting a package somewhere.  I had a friend that went that route also.  Well, I take that back.  She got married at one of those places, but just had the reception at her mom's house with finger foods and cake.

[roke]

To keep costs down, some of our friends had the ceremony, then the supper (but it was only immediate family and the wedding party) then had a big dance with all their friends and family invited - they cut the cake there also and had a midnight lunch.

[Jame0223]

I have looked at a few package deals and some seem reasonable but then they list the inclusions I have no idea if I am missing anything. Like one place offers the tables and chairs covered in white tablecloths but you have to rent the forks and things for $1 a piece! lol Its insane..I just don't want to get scammed!

[njrohe]

When I got married (3 years ago) we spent about $15K on everything, and we REALLY held it down.  Basically got the cheapest everything we could find (i.e. cheapest photographer, cheapest florist, etc.)  

My neice just got married this past June and it cost about $30K, and she got not the cheapest, but about average everything, but she was also married in June and vendors are less likely to negotiate in June because June is THE MONTH to get married.  (Example:  Both my neice and I had our reception at the SAME site, but I paid $25 per head for a Saturday morning in April and she paid $56 per head for a Friday night in June.  They negotiated with me, but refused to do so with her because they could easily find someone else to fill her date.)

Tips -- Different times of year are different prices.  June is the most expensive, the first week in January is the cheapest.  It is cheaper to get married in the morning than the evening, and cheaper on a weekday (Monday through Thursday) than a weekend.  These are some simple ways to really cut costs.  

[Jame0223]

I am probably going to due some time in September because its beautiful here in AZ at that time of year. Its too blazing hot in June! lol so that may be different for me.(more expensive in sept then june because of the 100+ weather)...oh man I am trying to ind an example to show you guys! lol

[durhamjk1]

Mine cost right around $10,000 - but my mom bought a fancy photographer and that was almost 2,000 and then the food was a buffet, but it was a full meal so that was another 2,000 - and then dress, shoes, cake, decorations, flowers, etc.  If you can cut back on photography - that was the our biggest expense - but my mom didn't want to, b/c she wanted the photos.  

[Jame0223]

I really want the photos too but I don't think I need to hire the best of the best...I just want some good pics to remember the day by..not that I would ever forget it.

[durhamjk1]

Yes - I have had some friends that have hired a friend to take photos and he did a great job!  Just look for the less advertised photographer (less popular in your area).

[alaysha]

I know nothing about weddings but.... CONGRATS!!! I am so happy for you! :)

[88tink88]

i had a fabulous wedding for real cheap.  My mother bought my dress for me. It was on sale at 75%off b/c the mall that the store was in was about to close down. That was $750-on sale. My aunt did the Photos, she works for a photographer. We made all the food that was there.  we went to a bridal show and got a ton of ideas for Hour dorvs(sp?) and bought all the stuff at wal-mart or sam's club. as for all the decorations, we got them at wal-mart, also. some of the decor came from the photographer, and other stuff just came from things that my family members let us borrow from their own home. we had an outside wedding at the city park in my little hometown. cost for the whole park the day of the wedding and cost of just the pavillion for rehersal was less than 100. for rehersal dinner we invited wedding party only. (most of ours was family, so it was small) and we set up picnic tables and used the community grill that the park provided and did hamburgers. everyone brought either a side dish or dessert and a 2-litter. all we paid for there was the meat, and buns, and table-ware, which was all paper and plastic. nothing too fancy. for the cake, my best friends mom does wedding cakes, so as their gift to me, they make our wedding cake, and it was so beautiful! it had a fountain in it and everything! As for the bridesmaid dresses, patters at walmart and my mom-in-law made them. we rented my hubbys tux, and the groomsmen just wore black dress pants and shoes, a black button up, and a neck-tie that coordinated with the wedding colors of hunter green and lavender. for the reception we did have a DJ, he, too, was a family friend, and gave us a really good discount! And if you and your future hubby are a little short on cash, or just want some spending money for the honeymoon, or if you want to be the ones to pick out all the stuff for the house, all you have to do is send out a little note with the invitations, saying, "In lou of gifts, there will be a money tree at the wedding." Then people will know that ya'll want cash instead of gifts. That's what me and my hubby did b/c both of us had lived in our own place before and we had everything that we needed for the house, and what we didn't have was things that we would have wanted to look at and buy ourselves. I hope this helped, and you are more than welcome to view my pics on here. i have some from the wedding i will post shortly. and if you would like a dress, let me know what size you are. Im looking to sell mine.

~**

[jennymay]

I just got married in May, and I think we were able to keep it under $3000. I just about fell out of my chair reading the other posts about how much people have spent on weddings, I can't even imagine! We had the wedding in my parents backyard, and it was absolutely beautiful! I think that saved a lot of cost, not having to rent anywhere for the ceremony and reception. We found a local DJ and a friend of my mom's is a photographer, so that also saved a bunch. I bought my dress online from a well known bridal store, and they have online deals that are a huge discount. I think my dress was under $200, I can't remember the exact price. We found my maid of honors dress at a department store, on sale after the prom season. Umm... a small local restuarant catered for us, which turned out to be about $800 for 75 people, which is about $10 per person. We rented the chairs and tables from a local party store, and that was really reasonable too.

So it really was a lot of work to be able to do it for such a low price, but my wedding turned out exactly the way I wanted it to, it was simple and personal!!

[Jame0223]

I wish it was that easy for me! lol. I don't know anyone that has that big of a backyard! I don't really want to do it at a local park because a lot of the parks have nothing but dead grass and lil rabbits love to live all over them so there's lil rabbit turds everywhere! lol I think I could handle the whole...restaurant catering our wedding too. I'm thinking my dress is going to be about 500. I need to find out about djs and photography but I really want to do a package deal where I can get married and have the reception at the same place. You know I had a cousin get married at this cute lil place in town...and it was small and had about 100-150 people..I think I will ask him about it because I thought the wedding was just beautiful...man why does getting married have to be work!? lol I hate that! On a positive note...the one thing I do know is who our party will consist of and what colors were going with! Hey its a step!

[Elyz1214]

We got married this past August and spent probably $1,000 on our wedding. (Yes, $1,000) including food, reception, etc. It was a small thing - we got married at the courthouse, made our own invitiations, had friends take photos, and had a reception at the park. We had about 30 people at our reception and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves. Because of religious differences, his family refused to attend (their loss!) so that helped cut down on cost. We didn't have alcohol, did our own decorations, etc.

We spent maybe $3,000 going on a weeklong honeymoon to Seattle. (We live in central IL). It was a lot of fun and well worth it.

We would have rather spent money on our kids, our house, and saved what we could. I don't understand why people spend thousands of dollars for one day - it's the marriage that matters, not just the wedding.

[njrohe]

The reception place can really nickel and dime you.  My place wanted $2.50 each to cover the chairs, so I figured I could do without chair covers.  I figured no one would even remember if their chair was covered or not.  They also offered tea and water for free, but wanted $3.00 per head for soda, so I nixed the soda, too.  So these are questions you can ask when they give you a price.  For example, if they say $60 per head, then does that include open bar?  If you eliminate open bar and just have a champagne toast, then what does it cost (if you have a morning wedding people won't miss the liquor).  Does it include soda?  What if you just offered tea and water?  and so on.  

Some places you can negotiate the cake for free if you buy the food there.

[Jame0223]

njrohe you can be my wedding planner! lol jk...hopefully you won't charge me for it! I love your advice...I can't wait until we really get into the swing of things...right now I am just looking around for possibilities. I won't start looking for real until my ring is on my finger...(thats coming soon!)

[JoyRenee]

I got my dress at David's Bridal and it is GORGEOUS! If you're on MySpace my avatar picture is of me in my wedding gown. I can post it here on MedHelp, too, if you want to see (PM me if you want to see). I think we ended up paying $500-600 for the dress, bra, bustle, etc. for the dress. We bought our own candles and had a professional friend do the flowers (probably most expensive, aside from my dress!!!). My SIL took pictures for free instead of hiring someone (we just paid for the development) and we asked a friend to be "DJ". My MIL made all the food.

DH already had a tuxedo so he didn't have to buy one or rent one. I think that's about it! We didn't have a flower girl or ring bearer or a wedding party (bridesmaids, groomsmen).

So it was a really inexpensive wedding. We also got married in my husband's parents' house. His dad is a pastor and he conducted the wedding. Very small but very sweet and beautiful!

[justice6920]

me and DH just got married in September, and of course my parents could not afford anything really at this time so me and DH paid for it our selves (altho mom did buy my wedding dress for me) I got my wedding dress at Davids Bridal for about $400.00 (beautiful) and actually me and DH drove to Vegas (we live in Phoenix, so about a 4 hr drive) and stayed in a NICE hotel and got a GREAT wedding package at one of the chapels in the hotel which included Pictures and all! We actually decided to just do dinner and cake after at a nice restaraunt.... Our total cost with travel (gas) hotel, wedding package and dinner was about $1500.00

[JoyRenee]

Eh, I put up pictures anyway! They're the first few pictures in my album. Just so you can see how gorgeous my inexpensive gown was! I got it out the other day to show my oldest and she said, "Mommy... you're a princess? You have to wear this to church tomorrow!"

I had to explain that 1). it wouldn't fit anymore! I'm not a skinny size 6 anymore and 2). it wasn't for Sunday service! LOL!

[jenntanis]

Well, you have to keep things into perspective.  I got married in Northern NJ, and the prices there are a little higher, due to the fact that you are so close to NYC.  Our reception site alone (which was cocktail hour, and 4 hour reception, cake and food included) for 150 people was about $26,000.  I know friends who have gotten married down here in Maryland for about $10,000.  I was able to find some good deals though.  I got my wedding dress at David's Bridal during their January/February sale and got a really nice dress for about $400.  And I ordered favors online from TheKnot.com (great website, BTW) and there was an error in their sale, and instead of paying $1.45 a piece for 200 favors, I paid 45 cents!  We also made our own programs and Save the Dates, but got professional invitations.  

Oh, and I need to add, our wedding was Memorial Day weekend 2006.  My older sister also got married that year, 2 months after our wedding.  My poor parents were broke after the two of us!

[Whitneylauren]

I got married 2 years ago and had a really wonderful wedding. If you don't count the cost of the wedding rings, our wedding only cost $500. We had a very intimate outdoor wedding in a friends backyard. Fortunately for us our friends both happen to be really fabulous designers (having published 2 books etc)!  They put everything together for free! We were wed right in front of a 1000 year old Kwan Yin! Anyway, the food was pretty cheap as the caterer only had to prepare meals for 20 people. Our cake cost $150 and was excellent. My dress was only $50- it was not meant to be a wedding dress, I bought it at White House Black Market on sale, but it was perfect for an outdoor spring wedding!

Our wedding rings a completely different story though! My ring is over 100 years old, the main stone is 3 carats surrounded by 27 stones adding up to a carat & everything is set in platinum..... I was spoiled.

[bluegenie2003]

I spent about $8500 for my wedding.  My parents gave us a budget of 10,000 and said that anything we had left over we could use for the honeymoon.  So we had 1500 to take with us!  I got my dress at David's, and I at least think its gorgeous!  It cost less than 700 for the dress, veil, bra, and underskirt.  (I have pics on my profile).  

We saved a lot of money in that we had our reception at a restaurant that had no room fee, and only charged 20 a person (just food).  For alcohol, we paid a ceiling tab...I think we paid about 700 up front, and whenever the bill hit that limit, drinks were no longer free.  That saved us about $1000, and didn't make us cut out open bar completely.  

For our photographer and DJ we went with The Pros.  It was less than 2000 for both services.  I've heard of a couple people who weren't real happy with them (they're a national service), but we were thrilled.